My name’s Phil. You don’t know me, but you do know people like me…or perhaps you ARE just like me. Here’s my story.
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When I was in school, I was the oddball, the outcast, the weird kid. I was different. Some called me special, some called me strange, some called me weird. My favourite term that people used to describe me was rare; I kind of liked that.
I was a bit of a nerd, but I also played sports. I wasn’t the most popular kid, but I worked extremely hard. As a bit of a nerd, I felt like my biggest strength in sports was the ability to see the bigger picture, to see how the puzzle pieces aligned, the strategy behind the game. I also learned how important it was to work with others.
I remember the days when all of us kids lined up to be chosen for the team. I always seemed to be the last one chosen…sometimes I was never chosen at all. I’m sure you know how that feels; I’m sure you’ve been there at some point in your life or at least know someone who has.
I struggled as a kid, always feeling like I needed to prove myself, always feeling like I had to justify who I was, justify being different. I grew up watching movies or shows that focused on characters that were outcasts. It always felt like they were lifting pages from my life, creating scenes that I understood all too well.
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Well…this is my underdog story. As I grew up, I applied what I learned when I was young. In business, I continued to use my understanding of strategy to excel and succeed in the corporate world. What’s funny is that I thought this keen thinking would make me popular, but I was still considered a bit of an outcast, weird, rare.
As I moved up the corporate ladder, I created and fostered strategic partnerships, again drawing from what I learned when I was young about the benefits of working with others. But, as my success grew, even people who knew me and had supported me started questioning me.
It seemed like the more I excelled in life, the more people began to spread rumours about me, tried to bring me down. I don’t know if it’s jealousy or being afraid of those who are different or simply a reflection of others’ insecurities.
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Through it all, the hardest struggle was to stay the course and continue to stay true to myself. A few months back, I was in a meeting and we were picking business teams to address a financial issue at our company. I began to have flashbacks of when I was young, when I was the last one chosen to be included.
As team members were chosen, I began to sweat and feel just like I did when I was young. Person after person was chosen until there was only me and one other person left to choose. The next thing I heard spoken was “I choose Phil, he’s a rare one”. There it was again, being called rare.
Throughout our strategy sessions, our group continued to call me rare Phil and I began to take it as a compliment. I mean, I was rare; I didn’t always fit others’ expectations. I didn’t always fall within traditional labels. I wasn’t always chosen to be included by the popular kids, but I’m proud of who I am.
Over the next week, I felt like I had proven to this team that I had worth and that I had so many strengths that added value. At that moment, I felt like a character in one of those movies, that my underdog story was finally being told. No longer was being different or odd or rare a bad thing.
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In fact, as I thought about it more, I might even be extra rare…that might just stick…extra rare Phil, or maybe they’ll call me XRP for short.
Now that you know me a bit, I think you’ll see that this isn’t only my underdog story, it’s the story of me, you, or someone you may know.
It’s OUR story. Because I’m not eXtra Rare Phil, WE are.